This 5 disc set features the renowned Vienna Boys' choir performing sacred works from composers such as Mozart, Bach, Handel, Schubert and Beethoven.

REVIEW:

German harpsichordist and pianist Christine Schornsheim has been making CDs for many years now; I’m mostly familiar with her collaborations with non-period performers such as tenor Peter Schreier and the German oboist and conductor Burkhardt Glaetzner. In fact, the only decidedly “period” CD of hers in my library is a Harmonia Mundi recording of Mozart four-hand music made a few years ago with pianist Andreas Staier on a Stein Vis-à-vis piano/harpsichord. Based on this admittedly limited experience, I was not prepared for the excellence of this release, nor for the depth of her understanding of Bach.

Complete recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier have been coming fast and furious of late; one need only scan the 70-plus listings of Book I on ArkivMusic to see that the music has attracted harpsichordists and pianists of every stripe and persuasion. Since joining the staff of Fanfare , I’ve personally surveyed four versions, the most exceptional of which is undoubtedly Rebecca Pechefsky’s recording of Book 1 on Quill Classics, reviewed in Fanfare 34:3. The first hint that Schornsheim’s version might be a cut above the ordinary comes in her personal observations about the project, contained in the liner notes: “ The Well-Tempered Clavier has always had a healing effect on me. Whenever I felt bad, I sat down at the nearest keyboard and played fugues.” She goes on to say that despite being an immense challenge, recording the 48 plus 48 has cleansed her soul and given her inner peace. One could interpret this as mere advertising jargon, but I don’t think so. The sincerity of these statements is borne out entirely by the integrity and honesty of the playing on these CDs.


It may surprise you to learn that I don’t automatically subscribe to the early-music dictum that the WTC can be played only on the harpsichord. Like any instrument, the harpsichord has its pluses and minuses, and in the hands of a lesser artist, the harpsichord is ruthless in revealing weaknesses in phrasing and technique. (It’s also very easy to sound dull and mechanical on the harpsichord.) The modern piano, on the other hand, with its damper pedal and increased resonance, is less restricting for many artists, allowing for a freer interpretive approach—or so they think. The best artists, of course, can turn a handicap into advantage. Schornsheim capitalizes on the strengths of the harpsichord in ways that are often hard to verbalize, such as the almost imperceptible changes in articulation—which would be lost on the more resonant modern piano—that set one voice against another in a fugue, or the minute applications of rubato that make sense of the rhetoric of a prelude. It is a style of playing grounded in intense study of and appreciation for Bach’s music, but one that never sounds labored, forced, or unnatural. There is nary a misjudged tempo or instance of flagging inspiration here; throughout Books 1 and 2 the level of accomplishment is remarkably high. In the international arena of Bach performance, I predict that this release will enjoy immediate and widespread favor.


Another reason for the serious record collector to consider the acquisition of this set is the choice of instrument. It is the 1624 two-manual Ruckers (enlarged in France in the 18th century) housed in the Musée Unterlinden, Colmar. The instrument has been the subject of numerous recordings, most recently a Centaur CD of Couperin played by Lisa Goode Crawford ( Fanfare 35:4). It is simply one of the most magnificent-sounding French harpsichords in captivity, and it has never been recorded more intelligently and realistically than it is here. Highest recommendation.

FANFARE: Christopher Brodersen

Classical Music

"•Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), one of the most important Czech artists in the first half of the 20th century, came into contact with the Dadaists in Dresden after WWI. • For artists scarred by war, Dadaism reflected their attitude towards life which found expression in word and image as glaring derision, scorn and shameless provocation. In this climate, Schulhoff discovered American jazz. • The Piano Concerto, WV 66 is a wild blend of Impressionist, late-Romantic and jazz-inspired sounds and rhythms."

“Miss E. Mayer is a rare phenomenon. [...] here we can see a female composer writing not merely for the pianoforte, but also solving the arduous task of orchestral composition, swarming with thousands of secrets. And how she solves it!” (Neue Berliner Musikzeitung 32, 1878) In the German-speaking area, it was Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel that towered beyond the borders and, at the turn of the 20th century, it was Amy Beach in the USA and even more so Ethel Smyth in Great Britain that became icons of the women’s movement in music. Still hardly present is the music by the German Romantic composer Emilie Mayer. At the age of five, she began receiving piano lessons, and in the early 1840s none other than Carl Loewe in Stettin was her teacher. In her music, presented here, we encounter familiar classical form patterns, yet the focus is placed on the colorfulness of her music, which constantly holds new phrases and impulses, and with which she presents herself as one of the most important female representatives of Central European music in the 19th century.

REVIEW:

This is a very satisfying collection of works, most of which wouldn’t win any prizes for originality, but which nonetheless make for very enjoyable listening. I would judge the B-Minor Symphony, however, to be, if not a masterpiece, at least an important work and a significant contribution to the German Romantic symphonic literature. Strongly recommended.

–Fanfare

Ernst von Dohnanyi’s piano works are influenced by the late romantic era, with different character pieces woven together as a cycle like the late piano works of Brahms. Dohnanyi first made his mark on the music scene as a pianist. He made his debut in Berlin in 1897 and was at once recognized as an artist of extremely high merit. Similar success followed in Vienna, and then he toured Europe. After he began composing, the piano was his natural instrument to write for. Sofja Gulbadamova has long been a champion of Ernst von Dohnanyi’s piano oevre. Sofja has won prizes at many international competitions in the USA, Spain, France, Germany, and Russia. Several CD recordings of her performances have already been published in Germany and France, and have been widely well-received.

Neville Marriner practically was the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – the orchestra he founded in 1958 and led for over half a century. Moreover, he was the face of classical music to millions of listeners… in a way that only Toscanini, Bernstein, and Karajan have rivalled in the age of recorded sound. In the later years, it was Capriccio that stepped in when other labels showed no interest to record the Academy in the bigger romantic repertoire. The central element of this collection is the set of Tchaikovsky symphonies. "The members of the Academy, trained on quite different repertory, let their hair down in playing that is both crisp and alert, obviously enjoying their outing into this pop repertory." (Edward Greenfield, Gramophone)

REVIEW:

After the already magnificent 5 CD release of the label Capriccio with religious choral music by Telemann (C7215), the label continues with the recording of impressive cantatas and oratorios by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach conducted by Hermann Max. For three decades, Hermann Max has made a very important contribution to historical performance practice.

Highlights in the box are the Magnificat and “Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu”. Although there is no conclusive evidence, it seems likely that in the summer of 1749 Bach composed his Magnificat as a calling card, with a view to succeeding his ill father as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. He went to the post after the death of Johann Sebastian in 1750, and again in 1755, but without success. Three decades later, as music director in Hamburg, Philipp Emanuel revised his Magnificat for a performance in 1779, adding trumpets and timpani, expanding horn parts and composing a new “Et misericordia”.

This recording follows the revised version but retains the poignant “Et misericordia” from the 1749 version. On one level, Emanuel's masterpiece pays homage to his father's Magnificat, in the euphoria of the radiant opening, the muscular arpeggio motif illustrating “Fecit potentiam”, and the almost literal quote on “Deposuit potentes”, for which he, like his father, composed a torrent of tumbling scales. In the gigantic, last movement, starting as an old-style fugue on “Sicut erat in principio”, but expanding into a majestic double fugue with a new counter subject to the word “Amen”, Emanuel unfolded, just like his father, his handsome, contrapuntal mastery.

– Stretto

After the first album with French cello music and the very successful recording of the Haydn Cello Concertos, Harriet Krijgh continues with the pearls of German-romantic cello literature: the recording of Brahms’ cello sonatas.

“I have given every operetta the style demanded by the space and time in which it is set.” (Eduard Künneke. Driven by success, Künneke committed himself to the genre of the operetta in the 1920s and 1930s. The diversity of his many operettas reveals Künneke’s enormous adaptability to the stylistic currents of entertainment music at that time. He had most international success with Der Vetter aus Dingsda (1921), with which Künneke has almost exclusively been identified up to today. His successful operettas were even adapted for London and New York. Herz über Bord was premiered in 1935, initially at the Zurich Opera and was performed almost 500 times between 1935 and 1937, including in Dresden, Stuttgart, Stockholm and Berlin. The Berliner Zeitung noted: “Once again, we can listen to operetta music written by an artist, a man of taste. Every number has its own weight.”

For over 500 years, the Vienna Boys’ Choir has been a living tradition. Since their beginning, the choir has worked with composers such as Mozart, Schubert, and Bruckner. Capriccio presents this two-disc set of what the choir is best known for - traditional Christmas music.

VIVALDI Oboe Sonatas: in B?, RV 34; in g, RV 28; in c, RV 53. Trio Sonata for 2 Oboes in g, RV 81. 1 Sonata in C for Vn, Ob, Org, and Chalumeau, RV 779 • Burkhard Glaetzner (ob); Ingo Goritzki (ob); 1 Karl Suske (vn); Christine Schornsheim (org, hpd); Thomas Reinhardt (bn); Siegfried Pank (vdg); Achim Beyer (vne) • CAPRICCIO 5016 (52:59)


This recording was originally released in 1988 as the chamber component of Burkard Glaetzner’s four-disc survey of Vivaldi’s oboe music. Be advised that oboe sonatas were not high on Vivaldi’s priority list; two of these five sonatas, RV 34 and RV 28, were originally intended for the violin. Nevertheless, reissuing this disc was probably a sound decision. Vivaldi’s oboe concertos are well represented on CD, but the sonatas not so much. Glaetzner’s recording of the C-Major Sonata, RV 779, was a CD first. Incidentally, the optional chalumeau in RV 779 is identified as a “bassoon ad lib.” Glaetzner is in fine form here, and the assisting artists are uniformly excellent. If this lightly explored corner of Vivaldi’s output piques your curiosity, you will not be disappointed by this disc.


FANFARE: George Chien

Capriccio presents the debut album of up and coming Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh. Among others, she received a first prize and the audience award at the Dutch Prinses Christina Concours, a first prize with excellence at the Austrian national competition Prima la Musica, a first prize and the Nicole Janigro Prize at the international Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia, as well as a first prize at the Fidelio competition in Vienna. As soloist artist Harriet is a member of the Live Music Now Foundation, which was established by Yehudi Menuhin.

Joseph Martin Kraus, also named as the "Swedish Mozart", has been many years a shadowy existence in music history. Gluck and even Joseph Haydn saw "a real genius" in his virtuosic and nearly early-romantic works. His position as composer at the Swedish court under Gustav III made it possible to have a fixed income and a blithe creativity. This new release gives us an overall musical impression of his compositions in all genres: Beginning with the incidental music to Amphitryon, the high virtuosic Italian Cantatas, his Symphonies from different life periods, till the early String Quartets- it is clear that Gluck and Haydn were not mistaken in their assessment of his skill and prowess.

This album is a re-mastered, re-release of Sir Neville Marriner leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Legendary recordings of artists like Sandor Vegh, Ton Koopman and the Vienna Boys' Choir are all included as special repertoire highlights from the baroque to the contemporary era.

Capriccio Encore is a series of re-releases of the most famous recordings from Capriccio’s back catalogue, fully re-mastered and competitively priced. The legendary recordings of artists such as Sandor Végh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys’ Choir also contain repertoire highlights that have a particularly special appeal, from the baroque to the present day. This Encore release features William Boyce's 8 Symphonies, performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, lead by Sir Neville Marriner.

This re-release is one of CAPRICCIO’s most famous recordings which has been remastered for optimal quality and offered at a special price. Henry Purcell is considered to be one of the finest English composers to have ever lived. He wrote a number of operas, and is heralded as composing the first English opera. Featured on this release are suites from four of his most popular operas, The Fairy Queen, Dioclesian, King Arthur, and The Indian Queen. Neville Marriner, who is featured as conductor on this recording, founded the Academy of St. Martin In the Fields along with John Churchill. The ensemble was a monumental part in the revival of Baroque performance in England.

Zygmunt Noskowski, the influential Polish conductor and composer, is perhaps better remembered for his role as a teacher and mentor to later luminaries such as Karol Szymanowski and Mieczyslaw Karlowicz - and for his connection to Stanislaw Moniuszko - than for his own compositions. Yet for much of the 19th century, he was Poland's leading exponent of modern music and his works are central to the Polish tradition. After the Capriccio recordings of his Symphonies (CD C5509 and C5547) this album presents some of his string quartets and shows us again a veritable picture book of Polish romanticism.

A student of Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kjell Flem, born in Ålesund in 1943, has long been considered an international insider tip of the contemporary Scandinavian music scene. His compositions are traditionally non-radical, atmospherically unconstructed, and creates an ambience deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His oeuvre is not extensive; rather, he allows himself a long creative period because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare.

She was Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher and studied herself with Anton Rubinstein. But to this day, her compositions have remained in the shadow of the great male masters-a fate that many women of this era share with her. Although her oeuvre is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her composing colleagues, these few works still demonstrate incredible talent, mature skill, and a deeply romantic Russian sound language that is so typical of this time.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K&K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, or Jozsef Bajza. This is the fifth release in a set of 10 albums comprising the Dopplers' complete music for flute(s), including various arrangements. Flautist Claudi Arimany spent decades researching this project, inspiring many famous musicians to become involved in its realisation. Flutists Walter Auer, Shigenori Kudo, and Massimo Mercelli are heard alongside Claudi Arimany on this volume. Internationally renowned flautist Claudi Arimany is considered the direct heir, both in style and concept, of Jean-Pierre Rampal, his mentor and colleague. He has been performing alongside leading international orchestras as a guest soloist as well as teaching and studying flute pieces.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K&K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, or Jozsef Bajza. This is the sixth release in a set of 10 albums comprising the Dopplers' complete music for flute(s), including various arrangements. Flautist Claudi Arimany spent decades researching this project, inspiring many famous musicians to become involved in its realisation. Flutists Janos Balint, Shigenori Kudo, and Maxense Larrieu are heard alongside Claudi Arimany on this volume. Internationally renowned flautist Claudi Arimany is considered the direct heir, both in style and concept, of Jean-Pierre Rampal, his mentor and colleague. He has been performing alongside leading international orchestras as a guest soloist as well as teaching and studying flute pieces.

Classical Music

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) was one of the first Russian composers to gain fame within his home country. His works are influential among Russian composers who would follow, especially The Five, who pioneered the distinctive Russian Style. Glinka studied for a brief period under Irish composer John Field. Field’s style remained engrained in Glinka throughout his life, and can be especially seen in the “brilliant style” of his piano works. Ton Nu Nguyet Minh has performed across Europe, and won several international piano competitions. Since 1985 she has been a professor at the Academy of Music “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.

This set includes 3 CDs and 1 DVD.



RACHMANINOFF Vespers . Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom 1 & • Georgi Robev, cond; Miroslav Popsavov, cond; 1 Bulgarian Natl Ch; Sofia Orthodox Ch 1 • CAPRICCIO 7010 (3 CDs: 173:21)


& DVD, “Mystery of the East” (75:00)


This Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom was hailed as the longest version on records (18:6, where I misspelled the conductor’s name) and the Vigil (Vespers) was warmly received when new (20:1), so this makes a valuable coupling. The Liturgy has been offered in varying lengths because the litanies are repetitive but often abbreviated. The recently reissued Martin Best version (32:4) offered as much as could be fitted onto one CD. Popsavov, like Polyansky (16:6), Milkov (16:6), Kocsis (19:6), and Bruffy (20:4), requires two discs in order to extend the litanies and the Cherubic Hymn, which are drastically (some would say mercifully) abbreviated in the single-disc versions. Yet here Popsavov is 12 to 20 minutes longer than any of the other two-disc versions, so it is the logical choice if you want more than Best offers. Another reason to go for this one is the rich Slavic voices of the choir, so satisfying in this music. Best’s choir was as good as the non-Slavic choirs get, but this is extraordinary.


Robev’s Vespers was rated right next to the classic Sveshnikov version, high praise indeed. Like the Liturgy , it was issued without texts or translations, and it had the minor fault of titling the work “Russian Easter Vesper Mass,” both Easter and Mass being incorrect terms. In a box that costs little more than one full-priced single CD, it is no surprise that the texts are still lacking. If you are unfamiliar with the Orthodox liturgy, this is a serious lack, but if you can supply for the lack of texts, this has a claim on your attention for the extended length of the Divine Liturgy.


The DVD included here arrived more recently as a separate issue but never received a review. The two sections of the program were made in Tomsk (Siberia) and Sofia (Bulgaria) in May 2002, but the notes, which are abridged from the original booklet, write only about Tomsk. The city was built in 1604 and the monastery of Our Lady and St. Alexei was built at once. The city also has the tomb of Tsar Alexander I, who, after his reputed death in 1825, is widely believed to have lived in Tomsk as Feodor Kusmich. He died in 1864 (the Britannica of 1911 called him Fomich and gave his date of death incorrectly as 1870) and was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1984. The documentary 45-minute segment on Easter at Tomsk is narrated with a generic background of liturgical singing, while the 30-minute concert in Sofia (Hristov, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Kedrov) has the camera moving from the choir to the church interiors in familiar fashion. The Tomsk segment is expertly done, giving a real understanding of life in a Siberian city where the Orthodox faith appears to be strong. At the price, this is quite a generous offering.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber